Thune Stays in Senate, Lobbyist Snowpocalypse and More in Capital Eye Opener: February 23

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

THUNE SAYS NO TO PRESIDENTIAL RUN: After months of publicly flirting with a run for president, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) finally laid the idea to rest Tuesday, announcing that he would instead concentrate on winning political battles in the Senate.

Thune, who just finished his first term in the Capitol’s upper chamber, is known as a rising star within the party ranks — a candidate with heartland conservative credentials and strong fund-raising abilities. Thune was the only Republican U.S. Senate candidate to run unopposed in the 2010 election — and only the third-ever in history, according to ABC News. Despite lacking an opponent, Thune still raised about $12.5 million. Some of that cash went to his Republican colleagues, but the newly-minted sophomore still ended 2010 with more than $7.1 million in the bank — another factor that led to speculation of short-term presidential ambitions.

Thune is the second high-profile Republican to turn down a bid in recent weeks. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) recently also decided against a run, choosing instead to stay put and potentially run for governor of Indiana.

Several more possible candidates will be making announcements in the coming months. OpenSecrets.org will be tracking all of them — be they Republican, Democrat, independent or something else — over at our Presidential Election section.

IF YOU’RE KEEPING TRACK AT HOME: Democratic Rep. Jane Harman counts as another politico to step out of the spotlight recently. Her exit, however, has not been looking very graceful in recent days.

Harman’s decision to resign her post as congresswoman for California’s 36th District after serving just one month of her sixth term has angered some voters back home, and seems to have spurned a grassroots movement to get the soon-to-be-former member of Congress to pay for the expensive special election needed to replace her.

Harman, who the Center for Responsive Politics estimates is the second-richest member of Congress, formally resigned her post earlier this month for a position as head of the Woodrow Wilson Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. According to The Hill, small pockets of protests have sprung up around the Los Angeles area and in Harman’s district. The estimated cost of the special election to replace Harman is about $3 million.

Harman’s 2009 wealth was calculated by the Center for Responsive Politics to be between $151,480,522 and $435,429,001 — an average of $293.5 million. Members of Congress only offer ranges of their assets and liabilities in the personal financial disclosure forms from which the Center draws its analysis.

LOBBYIST SNOWPOCALYPSE!: Fact: Washington, D.C. does not do well in the snow. The city gets plenty of flak from Midwesterners, such as this cold-blooded blogger, who can only watch in awe as a mere dusting sends the whole city into a tizzy — schools close, the federal government shuts down, traffic mounts … you get the point.

But now the intrepid folks at the Sunlight Foundation, with data from the Center for Responsive Politics, have combined D.C.’s skittish reputation with another of its famous traits to create a computer game that seems just designed to kill your lunch break: the entrenchment of special interest groups.

Playing Capitol Defense, you’ll take up station at the Capitol building and fire snowballs at hordes of lobbyists as they try to overtake a nervous Congress. Each level represents a different powerful K Street sector: Take down labor and you’ll face construction; after construction, there’s agribusiness. Luckily, there are only 10 levels to the game, but we can assure you, were you playing in reality, this might take a lot longer.

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